


Through Silver Eyes

by HungryLibrary



Category: RWBY
Genre: Also fluff, F/F, Missing Scene Fic, finding hope again, first posted on Tumblr, i tag it ladybug but read it any way you like, relationship study sorta, the difference between blind hope and determination
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-21
Updated: 2015-10-21
Packaged: 2018-04-27 08:37:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5041474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HungryLibrary/pseuds/HungryLibrary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world is not a happy place, Blake knows, and she's more than ready to give up on really changing it.<br/>Ruby doesn't deny any of that. But she does have a slightly different view of what that means for the people who try anyway, and what amount of 'Change' is worth frighting for.  </p>
<p>Or,</p>
<p>Two girls read forgotten stories in a dusty corner of the library.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through Silver Eyes

They sit together, there in the dustiest isle in the library, side by side but not quite touching.

They read. Sometimes hours pass with muffled laughter. Sometimes in tense silence and hastily turned pages, inaudible sighs of relief when the adventure goes well and shared triumphant glances once the heroes finally return home.

And then there are other times when Blake picks a book from the shelf they lean against. The shelf no one else ever seems to visit.

The book, though old, will squeak as it’s spread, binding stiff from years and years of not once being opened. At first Blake leans back casually, pressing her spine against jutting hardcover edges as if they won’t leave livid red indentations in her skin.

Then she reads.

Sentences that fall like an axe. Paragraphs that paint pictures of nightmares made real.

Pages upon pages upon pages that should have been written in blood, not ink, because that’s all they can speak of.

Blake reads and with each word the blank faced girl will sink a little further down the shelf, a bit deeper into bad memories and the knowledge that some had lived and been killed by much worse. The old hopelessness rises up as she slowly falls- so few tried to stop these things from happening, none of those who did ever really won.

She reads with her body curled small as can be. She reads as the lines blur before her eyes, threatened by tears-

She reads until Ruby reaches out to gently ease the history book from her hands.

The distance between them stays as Ruby takes over for her. Pulling knees to chest, Blake rests her head and watches silver eyes walk a measured pace across each page.

Ruby doesn’t cry when she reads about the near genocide of Faunus.

Ruby smiles.

Her lips whisper the names of the doomed who used their very death as a rallying cry. Every small victory, every escape no matter how temporary or reunion no matter how bittersweet, makes her face light up.

She tilts the book so Blake can see, fingertip tracing a particularly bold rebellion or heartfelt try for peace.

They are parts Blake missed when she read the book herself.

Parts that didn’t feel like victories when she looked at the bigger picture, even though moments like them _were_ the bigger picture.

There are parts of herself she had almost forgotten still existed, until a girl with words wiser than most knew had looked at the harsh, painful reality of life Blake set before her and said-

_That’s why we’re here._

_To make it better._

In Blake’s hands the history book is a mass grave. Dead and hopeless and with nothing she can do to help except add the bodies of the culprits to the pile...

But in Ruby’s hands, though book still casts shadows, it’s only because there’s a bit of light.

All those failures don’t feel like failures anymore. And neither does Blake.

They hadn’t won, but they’d left things better than before. Defeat once again, still here was Blake and here was Ruby and Yang and Weiss hot on Roman’s trail. Here was a Faunus with human friends rallying to her cause.

Here was an ex-Whitefang fighting to take down a group who didn’t deserve its name anymore.

And when the book falls gently shut, when the first part of the story ends and Ruby looks up at her with that small smile-

It’s a future Huntress that Ruby sees. Not a beast or a coward. Not a failed hero of all Remnant.

Just someone who has tried to make the world a little less wrong.

And Blake finds herself smiling back at those silver eyes, finds something stronger than hope in Ruby’s words.

She finds truth.

“We wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t fought for us.” Ruby points out, tapped lightly on the book cover. “You and me, friends instead of soldiers in a stupid war. And maybe thing’s will never really get fixed, but-”

“-But we can make it _better._ ”

Blake finishes for her, voice cracking as the tears break free.

Ruby sets the book gently down and pulls her into a fierce hug. “Yeah.” She whispers into Blake’s shoulder as the Faunus’s arms wrap around her, holding on even more tightly in return, tears vanishing into red hood and dark hair.

“You’ve already done that, Blake.”

And Ruby’s voice is thick now as she says it, muffled because she does not want to pull away, not even a little.

“For me at least,” She could stop right there and Blake would never need to hear more. “For Yang and Weiss and JNPR- You’ve already made a difference for us, the kind of difference that lasts a lifetime.”

The laugh is unexpected, startles even Blake herself as she asks, already knowing the answer.

“Just by being friends?”

Ruby giggles wetly and nods against Blake’s neck.

“Yep.” She sniffles, takes a breath, then adds in a more jovial tone. “Also by slicing up your share of Gimm and bad guys, but yeah, even without that, we’d kinda be a mess without you.”

The extra squeeze as she says it writes ‘especially me’ between the lines.

It also says ‘like the last time you disappeared’ and Blake waits for the guilt to come because she does feel guilty about it no matter how many times Ruby tells her it was a good thing, a needing space thing, not something to apologize for- 

Only, the guilt doesn’t come.

Instead a promise, steady as the earth, wells up in her in its place.

“I won’t leave again.” Blake swears. “I won’t run.”

Ruby leans back to look up at her, smile sad and eyes soft. “Take it from a girl whose Semblance is speed- there’s nothing wrong with running away when you need to.”

And it hurts that Ruby doesn’t believe her, doesn’t trust her, doesn’t blame her.

The hurt tightens in Blake chest. She doesn’t want Ruby to be understanding right now, she wants her to understand that the change of a lifetime hadn’t been a one way affair at all, Blake wouldn’t have made all these friends without Ruby, Blake doesn’t want to think who she would be if they hadn’t met.

So Blake holds her gaze and repeats again, firm as stone.

“I’m staying.”

Something behind Ruby’s eyes seems to lift at her words, some cloud or fog- And the new lightness she sees makes Blake’s heart pound with a certainty, this was right. This was _right._

“No matter what, I’m going to stay with you and our friends.”

This is a promise she knows she’ll keep.

When Ruby laughs this time there is nothing heavy lurking, all is easy, carefree, and Blake has never seen her eyes so bright.

“Strength in numbers, hm?” Ruby half teases and Blake can’t help but snort at the thought of their little group arrayed against the literal armies of Grimm and all other monsters they are setting themselves against.

The simple truth, though, is that they were going to fight _because_ the odds were bad, and just fighting together would make a difference. They might not save the world, but they would certainly leave it a better place than it was before.

That was the truth she saw in Ruby.

It was stronger than any broken hope or dream- and now with it, Blake found she was just as strong.


End file.
